The workshop will focus on increasing sociology's participation in the social scientific study of a core human concern "morality" and fostering and interdisciplinary research on the topic. Debates over right and wrong, justice, values, propriety, and deviance are at the core of organized social life. The scientific study of morality has recently received a number of prominent treatments within popular discourse. These stories tend to focus on evolutionary and psychological aspects of moral judgment. What is left out of the coverage is a sociological understanding of morality. The workshop will stimulate sociologists' participation in interdisciplinary efforts to understand morality that currently do not reflect sociology's potential contribution. Specifically, the workshop wil 1) assess both what is known and what gaps exist in sociological knowledge on morality; 2) facilitate interaction and collaboration among those studying morality, including across subfields; 3) inform sociologists about relevant work from other disciplines; 4) stimulate sociological research on morality; and 5) bring a sociological voice to public discourse on morality.
Broader Impacts
Potential broader impacts include developing a research agenda that expands sociologists? participation in the study of morality; and fermenting interdisciplinary collaborations to study the different aspects of morality that will integrate research from psychology, neuroscience, religion, law, political science, and economics. The workshop will produce a published report that will lay out the state of current sociological and an agenda of future interdisciplinary research and research on morality. A website will be created that will house workshop and related papers and host an exchange of information on the study of morality that will maintained after the workshop is over.
On June 15-16, 2009, the Sociology Program at the National Science Foundation (NSF) convened a workshop on the science of morality. The two-day workshop was funded by an NSF grant to Dr. Steven Hitlin, University of Iowa, who co-chaired the workshop with Dr. Jan E. Stets, NSF Sociology Program Director. The workshop participants recommended ways to enhance and broaden the sociological study of morality, and to catalyze interdisciplinary examinations of this core human concern. Justice, debates over right and wrong actions, values, propriety, and deviance are concepts at the core of organized social life, and social scientists study these phenomena from multiple perspectives. Workshop participants represented a range of disciplines including religion, law, psychology, anthropology, economics, and sociology; this group of scholars brought both discipline-specific and interdisciplinary theoretical and methodological perspectives to the discussions. The workshop focused on three major goals. First, it was designed to expand the sociological understanding of morality; therefore participants clearly articulated various macro and micro perspectives and identified theoretical and methodological developments to inform current work and advance future work. Second, the workshop exposed sociologists to the broader literature and empirical research on morality in cognate disciplines. This exposure was intended to help sociologists avoid redundancies in the cumulative science on morality and circumvent the methodological and empirical problems that have plagued prior research on the subject. The interdisciplinary focus also exposed other scientists to sociological insights that can contribute to their disciplines' theories and models of morality. Third, the workshop facilitated discussions of potential interdisciplinary research on morality. Workshop participants offered recommendations for advancing future sociological research on morality. These are briefly summarized as follows: Develop theories to explain morality. There are many extant theories in sociology that researchers can draw upon to develop a theoretical orientation to the study of morality. Improve the dialogue between different levels of analysis of morality. The micro and macro levels of analysis influence one another, and considering both levels would advance research on morality. Focus on historical and life course changes in moral language and moral principles. Do definitions of morality shift over time within a society? If so, what is the source of these changes? Research is needed to better understand any changes (or a lack of change) and their impact over time. Achieve conceptual clarity about morality. Sociologists need to establish the boundaries of what is (and is not) morality. Distinctions need to be made between morals, norms, customs, ideals, and values. Examine the context in which morality emerges. An examination of the influence of context at different levels of analysis would strengthen sociological research. Increase the visibility of research on morality. More published sociological research on morality is needed. In addition, sociologists must engage in other activities including securing funding for research on morality and holding conferences and workshops to further develop research.
